


I'll Run To You

by persephoneggsy



Category: Avengers Academy (Video Game), Marvel
Genre: Accidents, And Janet Gives Him Many, Angst, Arc Reactor, Background Cartinelli, Background Stony - Freeform, Friendship, Gen, Howard Stark's C+ Parenting, Humor, Janet's POV, Male-Female Friendship, Minor Character Death, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Prosthesis, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony's Gauntlet is His Prosthetic, in that he genuinely loves Tony but he's not good at showing it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-22 23:25:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8305318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephoneggsy/pseuds/persephoneggsy
Summary: Tony and Janet's friendship, from Janet's perspective.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Lana Del Rey's "Old Money". I think it suits Tony and Jan pretty well.
> 
> This is the most emotional thing I've written in a while oh my goodness. I just really like Tony and Janet's friendship, so I wanted to write a fic that incorporated most of my headcanons for them.
> 
> The bolded ages are, of course, how old they both are when that particular segment in happening

 

* * *

 

**10 years old**

 

Janet brushes down the skirt of her bright, poppy yellow dress, watching her hands get lost in the voluminous fabric as her parents chatter over her head. They’re throwing around words she doesn’t really understand, but she knows it has something to do with Daddy’s work, so she doesn’t interrupt.

She’s the only child at the gala, despite her mother’s promise that she’d make new friends if she agreed to come. Janet loves parties, but there’s no one she can really talk to here. The other adults coo over her and tell her that she looks just like Mommy, and she beams back and gives them a polite thank-you, accompanied by a curtsy she’d practiced for hours in the mirror. But as soon as that’s done, their attention turns back to her parents, and she’s left to stand by Mommy’s side.

And then he arrived.

Her father’s voice catches her attention, causing her to look up from her skirt.

“Ah, Mr. Stark! I was wondering when you’d show your face!”

A mustachioed man around Daddy’s age is walking towards them, looking sharp in his bespoke tux, and he’s accompanied by a beautiful woman in a pale blue dress, and to Janet’s delight, a boy her age. He’s shuffling behind his mother, tightly gripping her hand, and his gaze is directed towards the ground.

“You know me, Vernon,” the man smiles easily, sliding his hand into Daddy’s to give it a firm shake. “I like to make an entrance.”

Daddy laughs, and so does Mommy.

“And who is this handsome young man?” Mommy asks, directing a smile towards the boy. He flinches and cautiously looks up at her, but the woman holding his hand gives him a reassuring squeeze.

“This is my son, Tony. Same age as your little girl,” Mr. Stark says.  He turns to the boy. “Tony, say hello to the Van Dynes.”

Tony’s teeth worry on his bottom lip for a moment before he complies.

“Hello,” he says, managing a little bow, still gripping his mother’s hand.

“Oh, Howard, he’s adorable!” Mommy cries. Then she ushers Janet forward, placing her in front of Tony. “Tony, this our daughter, Janet!”

“Hello!” Janet grins, and to her satisfaction, Tony’s shoulders deflate slightly, and he looks at her in curiosity.

She sticks out her hand, like she’s seen Daddy do before, and Tony stares at it, unsure. It’s not until his mother gives him a gentle nudge that he releases his lifeline grip on her, and shakes Janet’s hand. But as soon as that’s done, he lets his hand retreat back into his mother’s.

Janet is not deterred.

“You can call me Jan!” she continues, happily.

Tony seems surprised that she’s still talking to him. “O-Okay…”

“Do you wanna dance?” She’s practically vibrating with energy now, and their parents are all smiling above them, like they’re in on some kind of private joke.

“Go on, Tony,” Mr. Stark interjects, sending his son a knowing smirk. “Can’t turn down an invitation from a pretty girl.”

“Howard,” Mrs. Stark admonishes, but she’s smiling, too.

Tony shuffles hesitantly beside his mother, but a quick glance at Mr. Stark and then he’s nodding his head. He steps forward and holds out a hand to Janet, who quickly takes it and all but runs to the dance floor, making Tony stumble and shout behind her.

Distantly, she can hear the adults laughing at their display, but that doesn’t matter much to her when she pulls them together and they start dancing. It’s an upbeat song, but they’re only ten, so whatever dance they’re supposed to be doing is quickly disregarded, and instead, Janet is spinning a very confused Tony around the floor, narrowly avoiding hitting anyone who dares cross their path.

After they dance, Janet refuses to leave his side. It only takes a few minutes to get a laugh out of Tony, and she finds that she loves the sound of it, so she makes it her life’s mission to hear it as often as possible. They talk for the rest of the night, and by the time they have to go home, Janet knows more about Tony than she does about half of the girls in her class.

Like, Tony’s so smart that he has private tutors and doesn’t have to go to school, his favorite color is red, his favorite food is cheese, and his favorite superhero is Captain America.

Tony promises Janet that they can play together again soon, and he waves her off with a bright smile as she climbs into the car with her parents.

That was the night Janet met her best friend.

 

* * *

 

**12 years old**

 

“You’ll never get away with this, Red Skull!”

Janet laughs evilly, twirling her paste-on mustache with zeal. She opens her arms theatrically.

“You cannot stop me, Captain!” she declares, with a truly atrocious German accent. “Once my device is complete, I shall take over the world! Muahahaha!”

In front of her, Tony is wielding a smaller replica of Captain America’s shield, clumsily painted by his own hand. He raises it defiantly.

“Not if I have anything to say about it!”

“You’ll have nothing to say if you’re dead!”

Quick as a flash, Janet pulls her water pistol from the holster Miss Ana Jarvis made for her, and fires it at Tony. He ducks behind his shield, avoiding the splash, and then he fires his own pistol at Janet. She dodges it, and fires again.

They run around the backyard at Tony’s home just like that, shouting hero-and-villain clichés, while Tony’s mother, Maria, watches on, giggling at their antics. At some point, they’re both thoroughly soaked, but neither are willing to give up the game; Tony because he reasons that Captain America _always_ wins, Janet because she just doesn’t like to lose.

Things come to halt, though, when a stranger steps out onto the patio where Maria is sitting. She’s about the same age as Maria, with curly brown hair and a stylish pantsuit. Maria beams up at her, but before Janet can pause the game to ask Tony who she is, Tony spots her first, and his face _lights up._

“Aunt Peggy!”

Tossing the shield aside, Tony sprints towards the woman, who is apparently his famous Aunt Peggy. Janet knows all about her, but this is actually the first time she’s ever met the woman.

Peggy crouches down and opens her arms, letting Tony tackle her with a hug. She laughs delightfully and squeezes him around his middle, not minding his soaked state in the slightest.

“Hello, my little darling!” she greets, planting a kiss on Tony’s cheek as he giggles. “Or, should I say, my little Captain?”

Janet walks carefully towards them, just as she hears Maria say, “We didn’t know you were home yet, Peggy!”

Peggy stands, hefting Tony up with an impressive amount of strength, though she hardly looks bothered by his weight. “I finished work early, figured I’d surprise you all. And I’d never turn down an opportunity to see my favorite godson,” she smiles at Tony.

“I’m your _only_ godson, Aunt Peggy!” he laughs.

“And so, by proxy, you are my favorite.” She taps his nose to prove her point. That’s when she caught sight of Janet, who stood awkwardly by, feeling a bit self-conscious being completely drenched and wearing a peeling mustache. Peggy regards her curiously. “Oh? And who might this be?”

Tony answers her. “That’s Jan!”

All at once, understanding dawns on Peggy’s face. “Oh, _that’s_ the famous Janet Van Dyne!” She sets Tony down and walks towards Janet. When she’s in front of her, she crouches down again and holds out her hand. “It’s so lovely to finally meet you; Tony talks about you all the time. I’m Peggy. Peggy Carter.”

Janet feels better almost immediately, and shakes Peggy’s hand enthusiastically. “He talks about you a lot, too! Did you really fight the Red Skull with Captain America?”

Peggy smiles wryly. “That’s classified,” she informs Jan. But then she leans in, and says in a stage whisper, “But _yes,_ I did.”

“Awesome,” Jan breathes.

“And, I can tell you… The Red Skull didn’t have a mustache.” Peggy pokes Janet’s fake mustache with amusement, making Jan puff up defensively. Luckily, Tony comes to her aid.

“It’s more theatrical!” he announces.

“Is it now?” asks Peggy.

“Villains gotta have mustaches!” says Jan. “It’s in the rules.”

Peggy holds a hand to her forehead, gasping dramatically. “Ah, yes, excuse me! I completely forgot about the rules!”

“It’s alright,” Jan nods. “Just don’t forget them again.”

“I’ll strive not to,” Peggy laughs, at the same moment Tony walks up to them. She naturally curls an arm around him, and he leans into her, smiling contentedly.

“Trying to steal my kid again, Peg?”

Everyone turns at Howard’s voice, and they see the man standing next to wife on the patio, his hand on her shoulder. He’s smirking at Peggy, but even Jan and Tony can see how tired his eyes are.

Peggy, however, doesn’t comment on it. She merely stands up straight and ruffles Tony’s hair affectionately. “As if it’d be hard. If it weren’t for Maria and the Jarvises, I’d have already whisked Tony away to live with me and Angie.”

Howard rolls his eyes. “Sure, Peg. Anyway, I’m glad you’re here. Some important… business just came up, I’m gonna need your help.”

Peggy narrows her eyes suspiciously. “What kind of business are we talking about, Howard?”

“The kind of business that’s gonna take us out of the country for the next two weeks,” he says wearily.

Tony fidgets beside Peggy. “But Dad, you said you’d help me work on my engine this weekend…”

Howard flinches. “Shoot. Right, sorry, kiddo, but I can’t.” To his credit, Jan has always remembered Howard looking extremely apologetic whenever he couldn’t spend time with Tony, and this time was no exception. “I promise, the weekend after we get back.”

Still, Tony deflates, frowning. “… Okay.”

There’s an awkward pause, then Peggy sighs and agrees to Howard’s request. She leaves with him, but not before pressing a kiss to Tony’s forehead, waving at Janet, and kissing Maria’s cheeks. Then, they disappear into the house.

Tony stares after them, wistful.

Janet instinctively slips her hand into his, and while he doesn’t look at her, she can feel him squeeze her tightly.

 

* * *

 

**15 years old**

 

Janet is with a few of her other friends when she finds out.

They’re sitting in her bedroom, laughing about clothes or boys, she can’t remember, when her mother bursts in, her expression frantic.

Jan immediately sits up, brushing off her friend that was busy painting her toenails. “Mom?”

“Janet, it’s Tony, Maria just called, he’s – !”

She hesitates, and Jan feels dread creep into her skin and settle like a cold weight. “Tony? What happened to Tony?”

Her mother swallows harshly, and Jan ignores the worried glances of her friends.

“There’s been an accident, Janet. Tony’s been hurt.”

The rest after that is a blur, if Janet’s being honest. Her friends went home, she’s pretty sure, and she pulled on some clothes haphazardly and dashes for the car. It’s not until they’re on the way to the hospital that she realizes she’s wearing Tony’s faded yellow sweater; he’d given it to her after she borrowed it one too many times.

“Besides,” he’d said, fondly, “Yellow’s more your color than mine.”

Janet grips the hem of the sweater and wills her heart to stop racing.

The drive to the hospital is half an hour, but it feels even longer to Jan, who rips out of the car the moment the wheels stop moving. She distantly hears her mother shout after her, but she ignores her and runs to the counter, startling the nurse when she demands to see Tony Stark.

Her mother does eventually catch up to her, and manages to calm Janet down enough to tell the nurse what’s going on. The nurse tells them that Tony is in surgery, and oh, _god,_ Janet nearly has a panic attack right there.

They’re directed to an area just outside the operation room, and they can see the Jarvises seated on the chairs. Edwin has his arm around a trembling Ana. Beside them sits Maria, and Howard is pacing the floor in front of them, looking more frantic than Janet can ever recall. He looks up when they approach, and something in his expression breaks as he sees Janet wearing Tony’s old sweater.

“What happened?” Janet demands to know.

“Jan,” her mother starts, but Maria shakes her head.

“It’s alright,” she says softly. Her eyes are red and shiny with tears. “Jan, sweetie, come here.”

Jan pads over to Maria and takes the seat beside her, letting the older woman take her hand.

“There was an accident in the lab,” Maria explains. “Something blew up, and Tony… Tony got hurt.”

Howard barks out a laugh, startling them all. “Hurt? Maria, he’s got a chest full of shrapnel and a mangled hand! Hurt doesn’t even begin to cover it!”

“Howard!”

“I take my eyes off of him for one goddamned second – !” The man stops, takes a harsh breath, and then growls, “I need some air.”

And just like that, he’s disappeared down the hall.

“How-!” Maria starts, but Jarvis is up before she can move.

“Please, Mrs. Stark, let me,” he offers. Ana offers her husband a tired smile, and Maria sighs.

“Yes, thank you, Jarvis.”

The butler goes off after Howard, leaving them all in an awkward silence. Jan’s mother sits beside her and puts a consoling hand on her back.

“He’ll be okay, won’t he?” Jan asks, after a few moments. “He has to be okay.”

“The doctors are doing all they can,” says Ana, in her kind voice; it usually makes Jan feel better, but tonight, it’s just not working.

“They said… They said they might not be able to save his hand,” utters Maria. Her grip on Janet’s hand has tightened almost painfully, but Janet can’t bring herself to pull away.

“That wouldn’t stop Tony,” she says. “He’d just build a robot hand or something.”

That earns a laugh from all three women.

Hours later, Janet has fallen asleep, her head pillowed on her mother’s lap, when the doctor steps out of the operating room. Jan is woken up so that she can hear the news alongside Tony’s family, which is when she notices that Howard and Jarvis are back, both looking far more somber than before.

The doctor says a lot of things Janet can’t wrap her head around – her interest in science did not extend to the realm of the medical – but she got the gist of it.

They couldn’t save his hand, in the end, and had to amputate. This is when Janet found out it had been his right hand – his dominant hand – and she almost cried. But then, the doctor continued on, her tone becoming graver.

Tony’s chest was riddled with shrapnel, and they couldn’t hope to remove all the pieces. They’d continue burrowing into his heart, until one day, eventually, they would kill him.

Maria and Ana collapse against each other, sobbing, while Janet’s mother put on a brave face and console them both, but Howard only grew more stone-faced. He orders Jarvis to call Peggy and tell her what’s happened, and as the butler agrees, he turns on the doctor with a harsh glare.

They argue back and forth about possible solutions, but each one offered was shot down, however respectfully. The best they could do was delay the shrapnel’s path, but even then, it would only prolong the inevitable. Howard demanded they do it anyway.

At best, Tony had two months left to live.

Quietly, Jan speaks up, but the adults all pause when they hear her.

“Can I see him?”

Expression pained, the doctor tells her that Tony is still unconscious, but something in her face must make him change his mind, because he hesitates, and then says that as long as she doesn’t wake him, it should be fine.

Everyone save for her and Maria stay outside to continue talking to the doctor, so they’re alone in the too-large, too-white hospital room. Tony is on a bed, eyes closed, and Jan could almost fool herself into thinking he was just asleep, that none of this has actually happened, but then she sees his chest.

Maria chokes back a sob.

There’s a _hole_ in Tony’s chest, wires pouring inside his body, like some scene straight from a horror sci-fi, and Jan feels a wave of nausea hit her once she realizes just how pale and small her best friend looks. Then she sees her right arm, which stops far too early a few inches from his elbow, where a bandaged stump is all that remains of his hand. _Tony’s_ hand, which created such wonderful things, helped him express his jumbled but brilliant ideas with elaborate gestures, was gone.

Numbly, Jan slips into the chair next to the bed and rests her own hand on Tony’s shoulder. She feels tears slip down her face.

No one moves her from the spot for the next twelve hours.

 

* * *

 

**15 years old**

 

“Tony, _what_ are you doing?”

“Jan!” Tony whirls around with a wide grin on his face, but Janet doesn’t return the sentiment, because the idiot is supposed to be _resting,_ not traipsing around his dad’s workshop.

She winces when she catches sight of the trolley that Tony uses to cart around – well, he calls it a car battery, but according to Howard, it’s a lot more complicated than that. Either way, it’s the machine that’s slowing down the shrapnel in Tony’s body.

“Just who I wanted to see! I was actually just about to call you.” Tony beckons her over with his right hand, waving around the dull grey prosthetic the hospital had supplied him with. He hates it, Janet knows he does, but he never says anything about it when his parents are around.

Janet makes her way over to him, and she sees a large blueprint stretched across his dad’s desk. It shows a large machine, something called an ‘arc reactor’. She glances at it, and then back at Tony.

“What’s this?”

“This is my solution,” he tells her. When she only frowns, he elaborates. “This is an arc reactor. Dad designed it as a clean energy source, but I think, if I can miniaturize it, it can act as a powerful enough electromagnet to replace this stupid old thing.”

He kicks the trolley for emphasis. Janet stares at him.

“You mean…” she looks back at the plans. “This thing could… Save you?”

“Yes!” he nods. “Well, more accurately, it’ll completely stop the shrapnel from going any further. But I mean, who knows, maybe medical science will advance enough by the time I’m older that I can get the shrapnel removed. But I have to live to see that day first.”

Janet brushes her fingers against the design. The arc reactor is meant to be enormous, but Tony wants to stick one in his chest. She can’t help but smile at his ambition.

“Does your dad know that you have this?” she asks. Howard and Maria are both out of town for the next two weeks, attending some kind of charity event in Morocco. Janet knows, because her parents have gone, too.

At that, Tony shuffles. “… Not exactly. He, uh, kind of scrapped the project because he couldn’t get it to work right.”

Janet snaps her eyes up to meet his. “Excuse me?! Your dad couldn’t even build this, and you want to _miniaturize_ it _and_ put it inside your body?!”

Tony holds up his hands defensively. “Hey, calm down! I think I know where he went wrong. I can do this, Jan.” He reaches for her, and she instinctively laces her fingers through his good hand’s. “Trust me, please?”

They stare at each for several long moments, Tony’s big brown eyes boring into Janet’s blue. Then, she looks away, groaning.

“Fine,” she acquiesces. “But what do you need me for?”

“Well,” Tony starts sheepishly. “I kind of need two hands for this to work… But, since I’ve only got the one,” he taps against his prosthetic, “I could make do with three?”

Janet huffs out a laugh at his hopeful expression. Like she’d ever say no.

They work in secret on the arc reactor for a week. It’s not easy, even with their combined intellect, but Tony’s determination seeps into Janet, and she can’t help the feeling of hope that grows within her as the day pass.

It works, of course, because Tony is a genius.

And if it wasn’t already worth it just to save Tony’s life, the gob smacked expressions on his parents’ faces when they return home is a pretty good deal, too.

 

* * *

 

**17 years old**

 

“I need a date!”

Janet is far past the pretense of knocking when she goes to visit Tony at his college dorm – and she stops by often enough that Stan the Security Guy at MIT greets her by name. But not once, in all of that time since Tony went off to college at the tender age of 17, had she ever bumped into his roommate.

Today was apparently that day.

“Uh…” A black young man stares at her. He has an MIT sweatshirt and matching pants on, a pair of tennis shoes in his hands, like he’s just about to go for a run. He rubs the back of his head and smiles awkwardly at her. “I mean, you’re pretty and all, but we should probably learn each other’s names first.”

Janet blinks. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” She starts to backtrack out of the dorm, only for Tony to step out of one of the rooms, blinking sleepily. His prosthetic arm is off, as are any of his clothes sans his boxers. His arc reactor glows brightly in the center of his chest, but neither Rhodey nor Janet are fazed by its appearance.

“Yo, Rhodey,” he yawns, “who’s at the – Jan?”

Janet immediately pushes past Rhodey and grabs Tony by the shoulders.

“Tony! This is an emergency!”

“Wh- What? What happened?” Tony looks vaguely worried.

Janet’s eyes bore into him. “I don’t have a date for the prom!” she says seriously.

Tony stares. “You what?”

“Prom? You know, the whole reason I decided to go through high school instead of hightailing it to college like you?” Janet waves her arms around, nearly hitting Rhodey in the face as he walks up to them.

“Yeah, I know the concept,” replies Tony. “But don’t you have a boyfriend? What’s his face, Mark?”

“Martin,” she corrects, rolling her eyes. “And we broke up. Like, yesterday. And the prom is tomorrow, hence my emergency date needs.”

“You could go solo,” suggests Rhodey, who is picking up a water bottle from the nearby kitchen counter. “Or with some school friends. That’s what I did.”

“You poor thing,” Tony coos, grinning as Rhodey flashes him a nonchalant middle finger.

“I thought of that,” admits Jan, “but then I thought, well, Tony’s my best friend, and never got to go to prom, so why not?”

“Ugh,” Tony makes a face. “Sorry, Jan, but prom doesn’t really sound like my thing. There’s not gonna be any alcohol, is there?” He looks to Rhodey for reference, and the older boy shakes his head regretfully. “There you go. No booze, no Tony.”

“You’re such a drama queen,” she pouts. “It’s still a party!”

“I don’t know anyone there!”

“You know my friends!”

“Yeah, and half of them stare at my arm and you _know_ I hate that.”

“But – ugh…”

“You could take Rhodey,” Tony suggests, but Rhodey vehemently shakes his head.

“Nu-uh. No offense, miss, but one high school prom was enough for me.”

“That’s fine,” Janet says miserably. “The suit I made wouldn’t have fit you anyway.”

Tony stops and gives her an odd look. “You made a suit for your date?”

“Well, Martin had this one off-the-rack monstrosity picked out, so I decided to make him a better suit. You know, to match my dress? But then he goes and dumps me for Penny Fletcher!” She throws her arms up in the air. “Penny Fletcher, Tony!”

“Okay, okay,” Tony steps forwards and pulls Janet into a hug. She melts into it, resting her forehead against his shoulder. She’s aware of Rhodey’s more than amused gaze, but she focuses more on the coolness of Tony’s skin. Ever since the arc reactor, he’s always run a bit cold, but it’s calming, in a way.

Tony pats her back with his good arm. “You sure this suit would fit me?”

“I can make alterations, no problem,” she mumbles into his shoulder. “I already have, actually. I even made a glove for your prosthetic so people won’t stare.”

“Aw, Jan…”

“You did that in the time since your boyfriend dumped you?” Rhodey asks, incredulous.

“Jan is superhero, Rhodey, she can do anything.” Tony pecks Jan’s hair and grins. “Including convince me to go to a high school prom.”

Jan’s head snaps up. “Really?!” she gasps, smiling wide with excitement.

“Yeah, why not? What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Oh, Lord,” says Rhodey, looking up to the ceiling. “You do not want the answer to that.”

The next night, Tony and Jan dance, drink smuggled booze, and nearly get arrested trying to ‘rescue’ a pig from the local farm.

Which, to be fair, is a lot less than what Rhodey (or even them) expected to happen.

 

* * *

 

**18 years old**

 

Peggy Carter passes away peacefully, in her sleep.

Ana, who’s been sick for some time now, passes in the middle of the year, and dear old Edwin follows not long after.

Janet attends every funeral with Tony, their hands clasped tightly together throughout the entire service.

Tony builds an AI that earns him the praise of his professors and peers. He considers naming it after his godmother, but in the end, he makes the voice more similar to Jarvis, and names it for him.

Then he builds himself a pair of flying boots, just because he can.

It’s not a good year.

 

* * *

 

**19 years old**

 

Janet pushes her way into Tony’s room. It’s dark, and she can smell alcohol permeating the air.

“Tony?” she calls quietly.

A lump on the bed shifts, accompanied by a soft, “go away.”

Janet doesn’t, of course, and walks further into the room, until she seats herself at the edge of the bed. She can see a dim glow from the arc reactor, and the light from it comforts her; it lets her know that he’s still alive.

“I haven’t seen you since the funeral,” she says, after a while.

Tony doesn’t reply.

“It’s been two weeks,” she goes on.

“Jan,” Tony finally says. His voice is rough; like he hasn’t said two words to anyone in a while. He probably hasn’t.

“I miss them too, Tony.”

The blankets shift, and soon Tony emerges from the lump, his red-rimmed eyes glaring at her. Jan has to swallow the lump in her throat at the sight of him; his hair’s a mess, his skin is pale, and he hasn’t shaved. He’s not even wearing his prosthetic, not that Janet could even locate it in the mess that was his room.

“How is this fucking fair?” he asks, looking away from her. She can smell the alcohol on his breath. “Why do I lose everyone? Peggy, the Jarvises, and now my fucking parents! It’s such fucking bullshit!”

Janet doesn’t say anything; how can she? She doesn’t understand what it’s like to lose so many people, in such a short amount of time, and she knows that. So she settles for what she can do – she reaches out, and intertwines their fingers together. She stares at their hands, and hears Tony’s breath hitch.

“… I cleaned out my dad’s study, today,” he says shakily. “Bunch of boring papers and business plans. And then I found _this.”_

He gestures his stump towards a picture frame that lies beside him on the bed. Janet glances at him for a second before she scoops it up with her free hand.

It’s a child’s drawing. It shows a red and blue form that is obviously meant to be Captain America, if the blobby shield is any indicator, and he accompanied by a red and yellow figure that Janet doesn’t recognize, but is labeled “Iron Kid”. The two forms are fighting generic green figures meant to be bad guys, and a mustached figure is crying out for help. Iron Kid is saying, “We’ll save you, Dad!”

Scrawled in the corner is Tony’s name.

“Drew that when I was five,” Tony croaks. “I made up my own superhero and came up with these adventures me and Cap would go on. Gave that one to my dad on Father’s Day. He laughed at it. Always figured he threw it away or… I dunno, misplaced it or something. But no.” Tony gave a sad laugh. “He fucking framed it. I built my first circuit board that same year, I graduated MIT, top of my class, and _this_ is what he decided to save. Some shitty fantasy I had when I was a kid.”

Janet keeps staring at the drawing. Finally, she spoke.

“Iron Kid?”

He gives another harsh laugh. “I was into knights at that age, too. It’s supposed to be a suit of armor. But cooler…”

Tony slumps forwards, leaning his weight against Janet. She tenses, but his arc reactor is still glowing, giving off a faint whirr in the silence of the room.

“… We had a fight,” he whispers faintly. “Just before they left. Before they got in the car – … I yelled at him. He yelled at me. Then he just stormed off, into the car. Mom told me we’d make up when they came back, but I was so angry, I didn’t say I love you to either of them before…”

His entire body trembles as he lets out a sob.

“Jan, I never got to say sorry. I never got to tell them I loved them…”

He cries openly into her shoulder, staining her jacket with tears. Janet gently puts the frame down and curls her arms around Tony.

“They knew, Tony,” she murmurs. “They knew you loved them.”

“I don’t have anyone anymore,” he sobs.

“You have me,” she says, resolutely. “And Rhodey. And my parents… You’re not alone, Tony. You are _never_ going to be alone.”

His crying decreased, until he was merely shaking in her arms.

“… I love you, Jan,” he says hoarsely. “You know that, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. I love you, too.”

“Platonically?”

“Completely.”

Tony chuckles weakly and Janet smiles into his hair.

“Tell me more about Iron Kid, Tony.”

He does, and thirty minutes later, they are both curled up, asleep on his bed, Tony clutching her like a lifeline.

 

* * *

 

**21 years old**

 

Tony becomes Iron Man.

Janet becomes the Wasp.

It’s mostly for fun, but they both like the feeling that they’re doing something important for the world.

Nick Fury approaches them both and invites them to his new school for superheroes – Avengers Academy. It takes some convincing, but they eventually agree to enroll.

They even meet _Captain America,_ which is a long story in and of itself, although Tony walks away from their meeting having antagonized the Captain (or Steve, as he prefers), and they become rivals. Janet thinks he’s just being stupid, as he always is when he has a crush, and she makes a point of telling him that.

Tony calls her a traitor, and then they go and get lattes.

 

* * *

 

**22 years old**

 

They make new friends, all with their own weird powers and personalities, and they save the world on a daily basis. Janet can safely say she’s never had so much fun her entire life, and she’s spent a majority of her life with _Tony Stark,_ so that sets the bar pretty high.

And just when things can’t get any more perfect, she walks in on Steve and Tony kissing in his dorm.

They both turn red, and struggle to stammer out explanations, but Janet only snaps a picture with her phone, says “I told you so” to Tony, and waves goodbye before leaving the room.

She’ll ask for the details later, and she knows Tony knows that. For now, though, she’ll let them have their moment.

Janet’s grin is wide and infectious as she makes her way back to her own dorm.

She can say now, with absolute certainty, that life is good.

 

* * *

 

**END**

**Author's Note:**

> I love these two more than I've ever loved anything
> 
> And also this is the first time in a while that I've written in present tense? So if they are any weird shifts in tense please let me know, I wrote this in like, a day


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